V. I. Lenin

To the Comrades Communists of

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Daghestan, and the Mountaineer 

      Republic[1]

Written:14 April, 1921First Published:Pravda
	GruziiNo. 55, May 8, 1921; Published according to the
      newspaper textSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 1st
      English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965,Volume 32,pages 316-318Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\HTML Markup:David Walters&R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation License

I send my warmest greetings to the Soviet Republics of the
      Caucasus, and should like to express the hope that their close
      alliance will servo as a model of national peace, unprecedented
      under the bourgeoisie and impossible under the capitalist
      system.

But important as national peace among the workers and peasants
      of the Caucasian nationalities is, the maintenance and
      development of the Soviet power, as the transition to socialism,
      are even more important. The task is difficult, but fully
      feasible. The most important thing for its successful fulfilment
      is that the Communists of the Transcaucasus should be fully
      alive to the singularity of their position, and of the position
      of their Republics, as distinct from the position and conditions
      of the R.S.F.S.R.; that they should appreciate the need to
      refrain from copying our tactics, but thoughtfully vary them in
      adaptation to the differing concrete conditions.

The Soviet Republic or Russia had no outside political or
      military assistance. On the contrary, for years and years it
      fought the Entente military invasions and blockade.

The Soviet Republics of the Caucasus have had political and some
      military assistance from the! R.S,F.S.R. This alone has made a
      vast difference.

Second, there is now no cause to fear any Entente invasion or
      military assistance to the Georgian, Azerbaijan, Armenian,
      Daghestan and mountaineer whiteguards. The Entente “burnt
      their fingers” in Russia! and that will probably compel
      them to be more cautious for some time.

Third, the Caucasian Republics have an even more pronounced
      peasant character than Russia.

Fourth, Russia has been, and to a considerable extent still is,
      economically isolated from the advanced capitalist
      countries. The Caucasus is in a position to start trading and
      “living together” with the capitalist West sooner
      and with greater ease.

These are not all the differences, but they are sufficient to
      demonstrate the need for different tactics.

You will need to practise more moderation and caution, and show
      more readiness to make concessions to the petty bourgeoisie, the
      intelligentsia, and particularly the peasantry. You must make
      the swiftest, most intense and all possible economic use of the
      capitalist West through a policy of concessions and trade. Oil,
      manganese, coal (Tkvarcheli mines) and copper are some of your
      immense mineral resources. You have every possibility to develop
      an extensive policy of concessions and trade with foreign
      countries.

This must be done on a wide scale, with firmness, skill and
      circumspection, and it must be utilised to the utmost for
      improving the condition of the workers and peasants, and for
      enlisting the intelligentsia in the work of economic
      construction. Through trade with Italy, America and other
      countries, you must exert every effort to develop the productive
      forces of your rich land, your water resources and irrigation
      which is especially important as a means of advancing
      agriculture and livestock farming.

What the Republics of the Caucasus can and must do, as distinct
      from the R,S.F.S.R., is to effect a slower, more cautious and
      more systematic transition to socialism. That is what you must
      understand, and what you must be able to carry out, as distinct
      from our own tactics.

We fought to make the first breach in the wall of world
      capitalism. The breach has been made. We have maintained our
      positions in a fierce and superhuman war against the Whites, the
      Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks, who were supported
      by the Entente countries, their blockade and military
      assistance.

You, Comrades Communists of the Caucasus, have no need to force
      a breach. You must take advantage of the favourable
      international situation in 1921, and learn to build the new with
      greater caution and more method. In 1921, Europe and the world
      are not what they were in 1917 and 1918.

Do not copy our tactics, but analyse the reasons for their
      peculiar features, the conditions that gave rise to them, and
      their results; go beyond the letter, and apply the spirit, the
      essence and the lessons of the 1917-21 experience. You must make
      trade with the capitalist countries your economic foundation
      right away. The cost should be no object even if it means
      letting them have tens of millions’ worth of valuable
      minerals.

You must make immediate efforts to improve the condition of the
      peasants and start on extensive electrification and irrigation
      projects. What you need most is irrigation, for more than
      anything else it will revive the area and regenerate it, bury
      the past and make the transition to socialism more certain.

I hope you will pardon my slipshod style: 1 have had to write
      the letter at very short notice, so as to send it along with
      Comrade Myasnikov. Once again I send my best greetings and
      wishes to the workers and peasants of the Soviet Republics of
      the Caucasus.

Moscow, April 14, 1921

[1]Mountaineer
      Republic.The full name: “Gorskaya Avtonomnaya
      Sovetskaya Socialisticheskaya Respublika” (Autonomous
      Socialist Soviet Mountaineer Republic), founded in January 1921
      as a republic of the Chechen, Ingsuh, North Ossetian, Kabardine,
      Balkar, Karachai and Cherkess peoples. At the end of 1922
      autonomous districts (“oblasti”) were formed. In
      1924 the Mountaineer Republic was dissolved, but the autonomous
      districts survived.